Sony lays out plans for 100 percent renewable electricity use

• Sony joins the RE100, a global initiative made up of big companies committed to using 100 percent renewable electricity.
• Other members of the RE100 include Google, Facebook and Microsoft. 
• Sony wants to use 100 percent renewable electricity for all its business sites by the year 2040.

The logo of Japan's Sony Corp. is displayed in front of the company's headquarters in Tokyo.

Kazuhiro Nogi | AFP | Getty Images

Sony is aiming to use 100 percent renewable electricity for all its business sites by 2040, the company announced on Monday.

The global tech giant has also joined the RE100, a global initiative made up of some of the world's biggest companies, all committed to using 100 percent renewable electricity.

In the fiscal year for 2017, renewable energy represented 5 percent of its international electricity use. In order to help achieve its goal, Sony said Monday that it would, among other things, expand its use of renewable energy in both North America and China and promote the installation of solar panels at manufacturing facilities in Japan and Thailand.

Kenichiro Yoshida, the Sony Corporation's president and CEO, said in a statement that the business was "pleased to join RE100 and contribute to the realization of a society that operates on fully renewable energy."

Other members of the RE100 include Facebook, Google, Goldman Sachs and Microsoft. The RE100 is operated by The Climate Group, an international non-governmental organization, in partnership with the CDP, formerly known as the Carbon Disclosure Project.

The Climate Group's CEO, Helen Clarkson, described Sony as the "largest entertainment and technology business in the world stepping up and switching its entire operations to 100 percent renewable electricity." Clarkson added that Sony's commitment showed the global marketplace that "renewable energy is the future."